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Itak Sa Puso Ni Mang Juan by Antipas Delotavo PDF
Itak Sa Puso Ni Mang Juan by Antipas Delotavo PDF
Mang Juan’s posture and stance, described by a side view, 45°-angled bowing
head, an anxious and disturbed face, a passive slouching back, and a seemingly-weak
right-hand holding his left elbow through his back, suggests his complete submission to
the rules enforced by the dominion of the influential and selected few in this game of
survival. One obeys his master, as the saying goes. The emergence of imperial tycoons
and political dynasties strengthened economic ties whereby its effects seemed
detrimental for most of the Filipino people.
The sparkles and flash of light observed in the painting symbolize the glamour
associated with foregoing one thing for Coca-Cola. The artwork itself reflects market
deception homogenized with the company’s bargain of introducing its satirically
“commendable” products to the Filipino people. The company’s primal objective, to
grant everyone access to self-fulfillment, manifests itself in the hazy “cloud-nine-like”
feature in the work, as witnessed by character Mang Juan and the viewer.
d. How will you describe the painting to someone who has not seen it?
I’m going to describe the painting by how the way it looks. I’m going to describe
the physical appearance of the man on the painting and what the Coca-Cola logo
symbolizes in the painting.
2. Content
It reminds me of the past when the Marcos regime rules the Philippines. That
time when the United States of America manipulates a third world country like us.
Delotavo’s interesting visual artwork reflects on the negative effects the Coca-
Cola Company has brought about to a Third World country, the Philippines. Filipino
artists like Delotavo applied on his artworks the concept of déjà vu, where history kept
on repeating itself, captured through preservation by art, depicting outrageous elite
power-grabs and manipulations which dumped the larger bulk of burdens on the lowest
sectors of the society, the labor force, pulling them down below the poverty line. Profit-
oriented control of prices of goods, falsified media exposure of stocks downfall,
irrational downgrade of wages, elevation of additional tax, and workers pullout, all
followed a cyclic path still existing up to now. The artwork figuratively encases itself as
an effect of continuous, unchanged processes caused by man himself, which then
inspired more artists to use brushes, paint, and canvass to portray happenings in their
time that would be history in time.
In his work, it may be seen that he emanated the natural colors of existing
entities to instill on viewers that keen sense of familiarity over the subject and
sequentially, to elicit points of view from different Filipino backgrounds.
The sharp tip of the C in the logo appears to be subtly stabbing Mang Juan in the
chest. The splashes of red then appear to me as blood spatters on a fabric. The sharp
tip of the C may refer to colonialism and capitalism, and perhaps even the cancer of the
society. Since there is a small gap between the tip of the C and Mang Juan’s chest, this
can be interpreted as a slow death for Mang Juan.
b. What principles of design are more dominant in the painting?
Asymmetrical balance is used in the painting with regular rhythm and emphasis
on the logo of the Coca-Cola and Mang Juan’s body to draw attention to a certain parts
and easily attracts the attention of the viewer.
4. Context
The painting Itak sa Puso ni Mang Juan was painted by Antipas Delotavo in
1978. It was painted on a paper using watercolour during the Marcos Regime which
aims to put emphasis on Nationalist Art in the quest for national identity and on the
need to break away from the western-oriented culture.
c. Does the title contribute to the message of the painting? in what way?
Yes, Itak sa Puso ni Mang Juan which symbolizes by the bladelike tail of the
Coca-Cola sign seems to stab the old man’s heart, drained of blood and vigor
symbolically depicts the harsh reality of transnational corporations.
5. Personal Opinion
b. Pretend that you were inside this painting. How would you have felt? Why
would you feel that way?
I would have felt the agony and pain of Mang Juan, too. The fact that
transnational corporations are ruling in the Philippines shows that we are not yet free
from the hands of our foreign oppressors. The negative effects of globalization and
commercialization directly affects the lives of ordinary Filipino workers.
Delotavo explains that he was drawn to the Coke icon because for him it
incarnated the ubiquity of the US in the Third World; its internecine interventions in
Southeast Asia; and its support for the Ferdinand Marcos regime in the Philippines,
which hosted two of the US’s largest foreign military bases. Also crucial here is
advertising as a vehicle of imperialism, in guaranteeing the US’s hegemonic presence
in the economy and culture of the Philippines even after it gained independence in
1946, following nearly fifty years of US rule and three centuries of Spanish occupation.
The Coke logo is concomitantly a cipher of capitalism and, in Delotavo’s own words, of
‘cultural enslavement’.
As for me, belonging to a financially unstable family, the big picture suggested
here is that Coca-Cola’s presence in the country grants it the power to manipulate the
economy, and eventually, the people’s lives – then centered on basic needs like food,
shelter and water, being faced with or dueled by the company’s products like Coke,
Royal and Sprite. Thus, it draws out the idea that art is an excavation of the artist’s
imagination and that it comes along with the progression of society and history.
Moreover, a connection becomes established between the viewer and the viewed since
the latter signifies things Filipinos are accustomed to: the physical attributes of Mang
Juan (skin and hair colors, façade, and dress code), the company’s title Coca-Cola, and
the artwork’s identity (work label and author).